updated 11/28/2020

Hanson school #4
Hanson Independent District

Round Prairie, Section 22, Makee twp.

Memories of Hanson School that last a lifetime

In a letter to Loretta Engen Sorum in 1993:
“I have some good memories of Hanson School. Wintertime recesses sledding down the hill east of the school, getting water from Sasses or Kolseths, gathering milkweed pods to help with the World War II cause, putting on Christmas programs, coming back to school after Halloween and finding the desks all stacked and Darlene Sweeney getting cut when one of the stacks fell. Then there was the time when the creek overflowed and we went across fields rather than walking the MUDDY road. I tried to jump like all the other big kids did (I believe it was Connie Sweeney who tried to help me across) – but I got my feet a little wet. Oh, weren’t those carefree days?” ... Shirley Bulman Schoffelman

(The floss from the gathered milkweed pods was used as filler for life jackets used by the military. Since the sea route was blocked by the Japanese impairing the importation of kapok from the East Indies, milkweed floss became the alternative for normally used kapok.)

Hanson school for me has a lasting personal memory. In the fall of 1946, I started first grade. My sister Shirley and I walked about three quarters of a mile from our farm to school. After attending school for only a few weeks, I fell out of the swing at recess. The results were two broken arms. Before we could go to Dr. Jeffries in Waukon, we had to walk all the way home with Shirley carrying our two lunch buckets. Prodding me along was no easy job, but we finally made it home. ... Norma Bulman Gaertner.

Note: Norma's sister Shirley (Bulman Schoffelman) is in the photo below ....

Hanson School students, ca1945

close-up & names

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Teacher's Report To Parents
Pupil: Shirley Bulman
Grade 5, School Year Beginning Aug. 19, 1946
Signed by Mary Lou Welsh, Teacher

~contributed by sisters Norma Bulman Gaertner & Shirley (Bulman) Schoffelman

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Hanson School teachers
(most names & dates are from a 1993 newspaper clipping)

Jessie (Marston) Steele (1907 & 1908) Carl M. Hanson Ruth Hanson Olga Lier Ebner Anna Knudtson Woldum Haziel Siem Gertrude Laughlin (1925-26) Hazel Knudtson Gullickson (1926-28) Grace Foley (1928-29) Evelyn Peterson (1929-30) Estelle Selberg (1930-31) Alice Wheat Duvel (1931-34) Estelle Selberg (1934-36)

Mrs. Lloyd Monroe Christine Sorum Bruvold Palma Kolseth Teslow (1939-40) Rita Schulte (1940-41) Kathryn Ryan (1941-44) Palma Kolseth (1944-45) Mary Lou Walsh (1945-47) Note: surname was Welsh. Obituary Carol Hanson (1947-61) Lester Pfister (1961-63) Lillian Stockton Rita Liddiard (1965-67) Francis Blake

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The way it was ...

Ray Sweeney fits into one of the old school desks in the Hanson No. 4 school which now is located on the grounds of his House of Clocks museum in south Waukon. A reunion of teachers and classmates will be held at the school June 6. (1993 newspaper clipping)

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~April 2020 - The above photos of the school & plaque, the schoolchildren photo, the list of teachers, photo of Ray Sweeney & the 'Memories of Hanson school' were contributed by Norma (Bulman) Gärtner.

Norma writes: "I grew up in Waukon and am now living in Germany. Our farm was about 3/4 of a mile from the Hanson school. My sister Shirley attended this one room school house until the 4th grade and I was in the first grade for several weeks before we moved into Waukon. Ray Sweeney moved the original Hanson School to the south part of Waukon, Iowa."

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Hanson School photos by Glenn Chatfield

The Hanson school was moved from it's original location in Section 22, and now sits on the outskirts of Waukon on Sweeney property by the House of Clocks.

~photos courtesy of Glenn Chatfield
~contributed by Aubrie Monroe

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